nov 30 2006 How your kids see you

This is the first picture Morgan has ever drawn of me. she brought it home from school yesterday.

It could be worse.

I remember going to Harry's first parents' evening at school. He was five. We were invited into the classroom and invited to view the children's 'project'. The project was to draw a picture of their dad and write a statement about him.

The first picture, resplendent and huge on the classroom wall, the moment you got through the door, depicted this giant of a man dressed from top to toe in red with a mop of golden-blond hair.

He was clearly rising, salmon-like to head a football imperiously into a goal net. The artist was Tom Wright, aged five, whose dad Mark at that time played for Liverpool. The legend beneath read: 'My dad scored a goal for Liverpool last night'. 'Wow', we all said, and marvelled.

Then I went in search of me. In the darkest, farthest corner of the classroom I found it. A small grey blob on a piece of dog-eared paper. Underneath it said simply: 'My dad's fat and wears a suit.' By Harry Machray, aged five.

Away I slunk. And now 10 years later, it all begins again.